Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL) Copyright: 2002 News-Journal Corp Contact: http://www.n-jcenter.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700 Author: Laura Zuckerman Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin) LOCAL LEGISLATORS WRITE BILLS TO THWART DRUG, DAY-CARE DEATHS TALLAHASSEE -- Deaths by overdose and at day-care centers are leading two local legislators to sponsor bills aimed at preventing them. Volusia County's Sen. Locke Burt wants to crack down on prescription painkillers and Rep. Evelyn Lynn wants to tighten licensing of child-care facilities overseen by religious groups. The proposals by the two Ormond Beach Republicans are in response to deaths in Volusia County and will be debated during the upcoming legislative session. Burt is sponsoring three measures aimed at toughening requirements on prescription drugs, including a pharmaceutical for pain relief that is a proven killer in Volusia County. OxyContin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, is blamed for the deaths of 370 people in Florida over a 13-month period beginning July 2000. And medical officials believe the drug is behind five deaths in Volusia County during the first six months of last year, nearly twice the total number recorded during the same period the year before. The powerful painkiller is abused because it offers a heroin-like high, say drug officials. The proposals include creating a database -- available only to physicians, pharmacists and law enforcers -- to keep track of drug prescriptions (SB 636, 638) and making the illegal prescription of drugs by physicians punishable with prison time (SB 640). Gov. Jeb Bush has already touted the pieces of legislation, which are being sponsored in the House by Rep. Larry Crow, R-Dunedin. The death last year of a toddler at a church-run day-care center in Daytona Beach is behind Lynn's proposal (HB 175) to have the state in charge of licensing child-care facilities overseen by religious groups. Two-year-old Zaniyah Hinson died Aug. 10 after being left by a worker with the Abundant Life Academy of Learning, affiliated with Abundant Life Ministries, for two hours in a van in which temperature soared as high as 127 degrees, authorities said. Prosecutors have filed manslaughter and neglect charges in the case, but children's advocates said the incident underscored the problem with an exemption in the state's day-care licensing law for church- based schools that also offer day-care services. Officials behind such facilities argue that government oversight will reach beyond licensing and threaten the wall separating church and state. Under existing law, church-run day-care centers are only exempt from state licensing regulations if they prove their standards meet or exceed the ones governing state-licensed facilities. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh